There are several factors that, when put together, make an event or trend a news story.
The first is that it is new. It’s not a coincidence that the first three letters of the word news helps to form the word “new.”
Then there’s timing. Not just “what,” but also “when” something happens makes it newsworthy. “What” and “when” are essential to the five W’s (which also includes “where,” “who” and “why”) that reporters and editors worry most when determining news coverage.
The inability for certain types of stories to register with the secular press, especially legacy media, is yet another sign of the political, cultural and moral divisions in our society and the dying American model of the press.
While this space is very much dedicated to critiquing news coverage of Catholicism and those involving the church, it is very difficult to do so when there is little to no coverage of important Catholic stories by a very sizable chunk of the American media ecosystem.
This takes us to a trio of stories involving the federal government and the Catholic church that took place during the first half of this month. At a time of year where the mainstream media is seeking Christian storylines to coincide with Lent, Holy Week and Easter Sunday (beyond photos of elaborate hats), the three stories I am about to dissect here drew very little mainstream media attention.
Instead, it was the Catholic press (once again!) and “conservative” secular media that did the bulk of the reporting on, for my first example, the issue regarding the decision by Walter Reed Hospital to drop a contract for Franciscan priests to provide pastoral care of patients and, instead, hiring a secular firm to oversee those same services going forward. Try to imagine “secular” Last Rites for Catholics?
The second was the decision by the Department of Justice to recommend zero jail time in a plea deal involving a suspect charged with destruction of property at a Catholic church in Washington just last year.
Finally, there were, according to documents, traditional Catholics who were targeted by the FBI because they could be considered domestic terrorists.
I can only speculate as to why this trio of stories didn’t get more news coverage. All three put the Joe Biden administration at odds with many in the church, an interesting development given that the president is the first Catholic to occupy the White House since John F. Kennedy in the early 1960s.
While no one expects the church to receive favoritism in these three cases because of Biden’s faith, another major tenant of what makes a news story a story is irony.
All three developments are indeed ironic given the president’s much discussed Catholic faith. That mainstream reporters are uninterested in these three stories at the same time reveals the potential bias in favor of this administration.
How so? The federal government looks like the “bad guy” in these stories. In the first regarding Walter Reed, the government may have its reasons but the timing was terrible. For this to come out during Holy Week seems to add insult to injury.
In the second regarding the vandalism case, the incident is part of a larger trend that the news media has consistently ignored since 2020. Even though the issue has come out in various forms — including most notably at a recent Congressional hearing — this is not something that will ever get coverage at this point.
The ultimate irony, of course, is that the FBI is looking to investigate churches for extenuating behavior — something that also got plenty of attention in right-wing media last week because Republicans made a big deal of it.
If the news media likes trends, here is one for you: Has the Biden administration waged war on doctrinally conservative Catholicism? It’s a fair question to ask when looking at these three stories, which aren’t connected in any way other than they involve the federal government and the church.
The biggest of these three stories, however, has to be the spying case. Not since Sept. 11 and its aftermath has a religious group been targeted to such an extent by federal officials. In that case, it was Muslims across the United States, a revelation that led to pieces being published about it (like this one on PBS) as recently as two years ago!
Certainly, the Jan. 6 riots have elicited a similar response by the FBI — although none of the journalism out there points to any involvement on the part of the church hierarchy or everyday Catholics.
It was back in February that I wrote about that now-infamous FBI memo that called out “radical traditionalist” Catholics. This is what I wrote in that Feb. 21 post:
The FBI has also become politicized. This is a belief that picked up momentum during Donald Trump’s presidency, but continues to exist now under the Joe Biden administration. If journalism is the place that you believe should shed a light on this painful paradox, then you’d be sadly mistaken.
Not only has the FBI possibly been politicized, but so has journalism, and we’re all poorer for it. A great example of this journalistic disconnect is an important story that “conservative” and “religious” media covered, while it was ignored by the vast majority of mainstream news outlets, including our culture’s most elite and powerful newsrooms.
The key question: Has the FBI decided that “radical” Catholics are dangerous and a threat to American public life?
On Feb. 8, a website called UncoveredDC reported on an FBI document titled “Interest of Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists in Radical-Traditionalist Catholic Ideology Almost Certainly Presents New Mitigation Opportunities.”
UncoveredDC says on its website that it pledges “to work hard to bring you the unvarnished truth, a concept the legacy media abandoned long ago.” It is considered a right-wing news website given the people it covers and the angles it takes on stories. That doesn’t mean that what they are reporting on isn’t true, especially if it comes on the form of official government documents.
The memo, out of the FBI’s Richmond, Va. field office, zeroed in on what it called “Radical-Traditionalist Catholics.” The memo notes that FBI investigations have found that there is a “growing overlap” between white nationalists and the RTCs. The Jan. 23 memo claimed that RTCs are a small minority within Catholicism. It said that they adhere to beliefs that are “anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBT” and linked to “white supremacy.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 1, called the memo “appalling” and confirmed it had been retracted.
Here we are again, a month later on April 10 (the day after Easter), getting more details about that memo after internal documents were released by the House Judiciary Committee.
At the center of the news coverage this time was Rep. Jim Jordan, a Republican who heads the House Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. This new subcommittee came into existence only after the GOP won a slim majority in the House of Representatives in the 2022 midterms elections. While some Democrats thought the creation of this panel was bad because it could be used to “settle scores,” it turns out to be a much-needed tool, at least when it comes to this case of FBI agents spying on churches.
Jordan issued a subpoena to FBI Director Christopher Wray as a result of the document’s revelations.
Of the three stories I’ve mentioned, this one got attention because of Jordan’s actions. They would not have had Wray not been issued a subpoena or if Democrats had been in charge of the House.
Here is how CBS News covered the story on its website:
The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee has issued a subpoena to FBI Director Christopher Wray for records as part of a probe into the bureau's handling of an FBI field analysis that proposed further developing sources within a group of traditionalist Catholic chapels in Richmond, Va., to look for signs of radicalization and burgeoning domestic violent extremism.
The committee's chairman, Rep. Jim Jordan, of Ohio, accused the FBI of undertaking "domestic violent extremism investigations against Catholic Americans," according to a letter reviewed by CBS News.
Jordan said of information provided to the committee previously regarding the the Jan. 23 analysis that it showed the FBI had "relied on at least one undercover agent to produce its analysis" and that the bureau proposed "that its agents engage in outreach to Catholic parishes to develop sources among the clergy and church leadership to inform on Americans practicing their faith."
Jordan writes that "based on the limited information produced by the FBI to the committee, we now know that the FBI relied on at least one undercover agent to produce its analysis, and that the FBI proposed that its agents engage in outreach to Catholic parishes to develop sources among the clergy and church leadership to inform on Americans practicing their faith."
When the bureau was contacted about the FBI assessment earlier this year, Christopher Dunham, Acting Assistant Director of Congressional Affairs responded on March 23 that the "Domain Perspective (report) did not meet the FBI's exacting standards and was withdrawn," adding, "Upon learning of the document, FBI Headquarters removed it from our internal system. The FBI also initiated a review — which is now ongoing.”
No major red flags here, but the story relied solely on Jordan.
It was the same at other major news outlets. No interviews with bishops, parishioners or experts. A story with so much potential outrage certainly could have used some more voices in it. The bottom line: This story is bigger than mere politics.
When stories did rely on other sources, they made the story worse. Look at how CBS 21, a local affiliate covered the story — with a local twist — when they interviewed Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, a Catholic and former Hillary Clinton running mate:. This is the key section:
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., told WSET that it was all a big misunderstanding that resulted from vague wording in a report.
Kaine said the purpose of the investigation was actually to protect practicing Catholics from radical traditionalist Catholics who may be coming to their churches to recruit them.
WSET asked Senator Kaine how this kind of miscommunication can be avoided in the future.
I think the key is communication," said Kaine. "If the FBI has a concern like that, then go to the church leaders and say 'Hey look, we have a concern and we don't want your members to get unwittingly caught up in something'," he suggested.
He said similar things have been done before to protect other worshipers.
"We've done the same thing for years working in tandem with mosques because there have been groups that have tried to target or radicalize, especially young people," Kaine said.
After clarifying the matter with the FBI, Kaine said he helped connect Bishops with the FBI so they can further discuss these concerns with transparency.
Kaine's point recalls that the FBI made similar inroads at mosques around the U.S. in the wake of 9/11 to monitor Muslim communities for any potential recruitment or indoctrination by potentially radical imams or fellow attendees.
The story was also subject to a correction. It read this way:
Kaine said the purpose of the investigation was actually to look into violent extremists who were targeting "radical traditionalist Catholics" in an effort to recruit them.
Nonetheless, the information reported here seems to be taking place in a parallel universe.
Since when are journalists apologists for the FBI? Why not reach out to other Catholic senators (there are currently 27 on both sides of the political aisle) for comment?
This last report was the only egregious example of how not to report this story. In general, the FBI memo was not news in The New York Times and Washington Post, two dailies that continue to set much of the agenda for the elite press in this country.
That the Post did not cover the details and Jordan’s letter — considering it emanated from Washington and the churches in question were based in Virginia — is quite astonishing.
Again, it’s a case of no news coverage over bad reporting. In this case, we got more of the latter from the legacy media.
FIRST IMAGE: FBI logo via Wikipedia Commons.